Mayhugh said the Fitton Center for Creative Arts is excited to be one of a number of participating regional venues in the 7th installment of the FotoFocus Biennial. The theme of the 2024 multi-venue exhibition is “backstories.”
“We are partnering with 17Strong, because what the Fitton Center would like to do is select and send artist photographers out into the 17 neighborhoods of Hamilton to capture these backstories,’ she said. “So, those 17 neighborhood photo narratives will end up all together in an exhibition in the Fitton Center galleries. We’re excited about the possibilities.”
The Fitton Center’s planned exhibition is an opportunity for adult artists living within 60 miles of Hamilton who work in photography and/or lens-based media. Selected artists will receive a $500 project honorarium. The deadline to enter is March 3. The exhibition will be displayed in the Fitton Center for Creative Arts galleries in the fall of 2024.
The planned group exhibition titled “We > Me (We is Greater Than Me): 17 Artists Explore Hamilton Neighborhoods” tells the ongoing story of Hamilton, Ohio, by uniting multiple perspectives and interpretations of the theme “backstories” through lens-based art.
“We are asking photographers to let us know a general way they want to address this theme of ‘backstories,” Mayhugh said.
Photographers may choose to focus on an event in a particular neighborhood, on the people who work or live there, or the spaces in the neighborhood, such as the streets, alleys, or architecture, for example.
“There are so many different ways that artists can take what they are already doing in their photographic process, or concept, and apply it to what they find in a particular neighborhood,” Mayhugh said. “We decided the only way we could make this fair as far as which neighborhood selected artists would be matched with is to do it like a lottery process.”
In this project, 17 selected regional artists are assigned, through a lottery process conducted by project organizers, to one of the City of Hamilton’s 17 diverse neighborhoods to create visual narratives. Artists are asked to be open-minded to be able to apply what they want to do with any of the 17 neighborhoods in Hamilton that they might be matched with.
“17Strong is an incredible organization that is based out of the City of Hamilton,” said Ian MacKenzie-Thurley, executive director of the Fitton Center.
He said 17Strong has not only been a collaborator with the Fitton Center, but they are an incredible supporter of the arts in Hamilton. The Fitton Center has also had a longstanding relationship with FotoFocus.
“We have had an excellent relationship with FotoFocus for many years, and we’ve had quite a few outstanding exhibitions at the Fitton Center as a result. We have been really excited about our opportunities with Fotofocus, and they’ve been great supporters. Also, for many years, we’ve been trying to find a way to bring a 17Strong exhibition to the Fitton Center. It’s been on our minds. So, we’re thrilled about this opportunity,” MacKenzie-Thurley said.
He said the exhibition is about an exploration and a different perspective when it comes to capturing the essence of Hamilton and these 17 different neighborhoods.
In spring and summer of 2024, selected photographers will roam their assigned neighborhoods to find the aspects, aesthetics and/or personalities they wish to reveal through their lens-based art. By spending time within a neighborhood’s borders and/or with its residents, artists will dig deeper, beyond the surface to unearth stories of the unexpected – whether it’s a moment in time, a path to the past, an interior or exterior space, a unique point of view, the energy behind the scenes of an event or an unusual interaction. Selected artists may also choose to utilize historic images they have previously captured of their assigned neighborhoods in their projects.
The resulting series of photos in the “We > Me: 17 Artists Explore Hamilton Neighborhoods” exhibition will unite various visual tales of Hamilton’s 17 neighborhoods into four galleries at the Fitton Center. To view a map of the 17Strong neighborhoods, visit https://cohohio.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8b6980244e2d48c3987d558401cd4e0b.
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